GWJ Donation Drive 2018 Launched!

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It’s time for the annual Gamers With Jobs donation drive! This is the one month of the year where we ask for your support in keeping GWJ ad-free, running smoothly and creating cool new things! This year we’re tossing stretch goals out the window in favor of just laying out some of what we’re going to accomplish in the upcoming year with the hope that you’d like join us in supporting these endeavors. We’ll get into those plans further down the page!

First, the short version -- if you’d like to help GWJ keep the lights on, remain ad-free, keep building the amazing community, keep pumping out great content, keep the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call going, keep making videos and RPG podcasts and all kinds of stuff then go to → patreon.com/gwj.

[One important note -- if you do support the site and want the rewards make sure the email you use for Patreon is the same one you use for your GWJ account. See below if you have different emails.]

While Patreon is our preferred and primary way of supporting the site, we understand some folks still prefer using Paypal. Your donation will still very much count! You can click on the Paypal button below if you’d prefer that route. Please include in the notes your forum name so we can associate the payment with your site name!

So, What The Deal This Year?

Well, we’re dropping stretch goals. Accepted wisdom with crowdfunding is you need these carrots to entice people to support your work. Maybe we’re just getting old, but there’s things we want to do this year because we’re passionate about them first and foremost -- it just feels better doing something cool for sure and letting you decide if you want to back it. So what’s happening?

Website Bug Fixes & Updates - Thanks to Jeff Beeman (Doogiemac) the site is pretty snappy, stable and secure these days. There’s a few often-requested features and fixes from the GWJ community, so we’ll be packaging those up, budgeting for them and implementing before the end of the year. Plans so far include unicode support (emojis), better search functions, better GIF support and more. You can toss your own suggestions into the thread!

Quarterly Game Charity Streams Starting January, 2019 - Since Shawn emerged from a humanitarian mission in Nepal, he’s been thinking about how GWJ can look outward and do some more good in the world. To that end, we’ll be running a 24 gaming stream featuring podcasters, writers and community streamers to raise money for charity once per season. The first one will happen in January (specific date pending) and all proceeds will go toward Trans Lifeline, a direct service, material support, advocacy, and education non-profit for the trans community in Canada and the US.

A New Story RPG and Website - Fans of the Unmarked, Orbital Decay and Heroes of the Realm will be happy to know that our next story, Triumvirate, will be going live before the end of the year! It’s being run by Shawn Andrich and played by Sean Sands, Allen Cook, Julian Murdoch and a rotating cast of guests!

To give the story podcasts a little more room to breathe, we’re launching Story Roost later this month, a website dedicated to highlighting these works. Shows will still be posted on GWJ as well and the current RSS feed will work fine. In the long term, we’re hoping to produce and host more audio story ideas on the new platform. Story Roost will NOT have its own donation drive or anything like that. It’s very much under the GWJ umbrella, they’re just not strictly “games” so having a new space for them made sense.

For donors who contribute $5 or more this month they’ll get to listen to the first episode of Triumvirate featuring Jeff Cannata ahead of the official release!

FAQ

How do I donate to the site? -- Ok, good. This is an easy one, because I just mentioned it a moment ago. Go to Patreon.com/GWJ, enter an amount you’d like to pledge each month, enter your payment information and you’re good. Thank you, you’re awesome.

What If My Patreon and GWJ Emails Don't Match? - Please email [email protected] with both email addresses and your forum name and we'll make sure you get on the list! When donating with Paypal please note your forum name in the notes section!

Can I Change My Donation? -- You can always adjust your donation, up or down. We activate our monthly rewards based on whomever is in that tier at the time, so if you want to get a reward you can bump up your donation and receive that. Alternatively if you need to trim some expenses feel free to drop it down.

But, I really want to use PayPal. – All good, just use the button up top! Please note your forum name with the Paypal submission so we can tag you in the forums!

Cool, now what do I get for my money? -- Mostly, you get an awesome community. That and articles, videos, podcasts, RPG stories and a bunch of other stuff that hopefully you like and want to support. But, there are also rewards as well --

Any $2.00+ donation -- Golden community icon for the forums
$5/month -- Icon + Early Access to the first episode of Triumvirate
$20/month -- Icon + Triumvirate + we’ll read a custom short message from you on the air of the Conference Call.

$50/month -- What? Seriously? Ok, all the other cool stuff, plus if you maintain this tier for a year, Shawn and I will get online and talk to you about what kind of project you’d like to see to match your awesome level of support. You’ll work directly with us on making something great for the site, and best of all, you get to help come up with what that something is.

I don’t live in the US, can I donate? -- Yes ... at least according to Patreon’s FAQ -- your funds will be converted to USD. Here’s what they have to say.

Are icons still part of the deal? -- Heck yeah! Just donate $2.00 or more and we’ll tag you with the next icon. We also have a few people in the community who have been with us for all 16 -- 16?! -- years and donated every year, so we couldn’t leave them hanging without a new look.

Sweet, when do I get my icon? – This year we’re going to do all the tagging in early December once all donations are cleared and do them all at once. We’re hoping that makes it easier to not miss any!

When does the Donation Drive end? -- Technically we will be accepting support year-round, and there will be a link to the Patreon on the site, but the Donation Drive itself still only lasts a month, and after December 7th we’ll pretty much stop talking about support or the Patreon. You’ll always have normal access to and an easy way to find the Patreon though, not just for those who want to donate, but also in case people who have donated want to make any changes. We will only be accepting PayPal donations until December 7th.

Anything else? -- Probably, but the big answer to this question is if you have more things you’re wondering drop a line in comments, send us a PM or even reach out to [email protected] and we’ll try to get you an answer.

And, thank you one more time. Even if you aren’t able to contribute your dollars to help the site, so many of you do things both little and big every day to make this an amazing and rare place on the internet. We are so grateful for your time, your support and your awesome contributions. Thanks for helping make GWJ an awesome place to be!

Is this where I can give super-props to the individual responsible for the bee? I get a tingle of pleasure every time I see it. The colors are perfectly balanced and the details are fantastic. Not sure what is on deck for the next tier, but I might ask to keep this little buddy of mine.

Story Roost sounds like an excellent idea. I know I've had trouble in the past trying to recommend and point people to the RPGs without going too far down the rabbit hole of the explaining the forums and the main podcast. Having a more distinct label/site (but still under the gwj umbrella) will hopefully make that easier.